A Star's Smart Cookbook

By Christopher John Farley/Philadelphia

When Patti LaBelle first learned that she had Type 2 diabetes 10 years ago, the news hit her, she says, like "a death sentence." The soul singer, 59, had reason to be concerned. Her aunt and grandmother died of diabetes, and her mother Bertha lost her legs to it before she died at 65. But survival in the face of long odds is a recurring theme in LaBelle's Grammy-winning career, so her thoughts soon turned from whether she was going to die to how she was going to live--and, more particularly, what she was going to eat.

Singing may be her trade, but to LaBelle soul food is almost as important as soul music. "I don't do drugs, I don't drink--so my getting high was always the meal after the show," she says. Now, having put in several years as a spokeswoman for the American Diabetes Association (A.D.A.), LaBelle has dedicated herself to finding food that is good for diabetics and good to eat--nutritious, low fat and flavorful.

For ideas, she called on celebrity friends who also have diabetes, including Halle Berry (who offered a recipe for Berry Cool Chicken Chili). Drawing from what she learned and her own homegrown recipes, LaBelle published a healthy-eating cookbook this year titled Patti LaBelle's Lite Cuisine (Gotham; $26). The book carries seals of approval from both the A.D.A. and the American Dietetic Association. "It's not just for diabetics," LaBelle insists. "It's for anyone who wants to eat healthier food."

It's no mystery where LaBelle got her culinary skills. She describes her mother as a "great" cook who was known around her Philadelphia neighborhood for her blueberry cobbler, and LaBelle's father once ran a soul-food restaurant in Harrisburg, Pa. "Oh, my God, I miss that food," she says.

LaBelle says she tries hard to eat smart--avoiding salt and fried chicken, eating cheese-steak sandwiches without cheese or bread. "I can be bad," she admits. "But I know the badder I am, the shorter my life. And I'm not ready to leave."

In the decade since the diagnosis, LaBelle has had a Tony Bennett--like resurgence. Her reputation as a singer has deepened, and younger singers now clamor to record with her. In the past year LaBelle's gospel-trained voice has graced albums by rappers DMX, Wyclef Jean and OutKast. She has signed with Def Jam Classics and is working on an album for release in 2004.

Although LaBelle finds managing diabetes an annoyance, she is not above using her disease to punch up her act. Earlier this year in Miami, her blood sugar low, she checked herself into a hospital the night before a show, and when she started feeling better, checked herself back out to perform. But when she sang, the crowd seemed flat. So she called one of her doctors to the stage to tell the audience what she had just gone through. "After that," says LaBelle, "they recognized." Diabetes may have forced LaBelle to cut back on certain foods, but hamming it up is still allowed. --By Christopher John Farley/Philadelphia